A caster is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary to be any of a set of wheels or rotating balls mounted in a swivel frame and used for the support and movement of furniture, trucks, and portable equipment.
In hospital, medical, nursing home, rehabilitation facilities and some portions of assisted living facilities and the like, and including pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, medical equipment, diagnostic devices and supplies, etc., are mounted on carts that include casters for transport. Similarly, patients are transported on beds that are mounted on casters.
Such carts and beds must often be transported by staff into dimly lit areas such as occur during evening hours or during power outages.
In addition, regardless of the ambient lighting conditions within a facility, pathogens including viruses and bacteria may accumulate and colonize on the surfaces of the wheels of the caster sets in such equipment and be spread by the transport and movement of such equipment throughout such facilities.
As a result, pathogens including viruses and bacteria may accumulate and colonize on the surfaces of the wheels of the caster sets in such equipment and be spread by the transport and movement of such equipment throughout such facilities.